--- Begin Message --- Title: KPFA Censors Mike Ruppert -- A Message From Peter Dale Scott, Ph.D.Within the last twenty-four hours I have been scrubbed from two pre-set programs on Pacifica Radio’s KPFA in Berkeley. This is as a result of innuendo-laden and factually unsupported criticisms by Norman Solomon of FAIR and others lurking behind him like John Foster “Chip” Berlet. I have not only been denied free-speech access to public airwaves but I have been deprived of a most basic right in any democracy, the right to confront and challenge accusers who do not have the courage to engage in an open and unbiased debate.
Yesterday, as I tried to confirm a pre-scheduled appearance for April 3 with Dennis Bernstein on Flashpoints, a nervous Bernstein, upon taking my call said, “You’re going to get me in trouble. I have to transfer you to my producer.” After a ten minute hold I spoke to a curt Yun-Jongh Suh who told me – incorrectly – that because my assistant had failed to return a confirming call she had cancelled the show and Gee, Palestine was too important. My assistant confirmed to me that she had confirmed the show for me and placed it on my calendar.
Then today, a second appearance with host Sue Supriano, also scheduled for April 3rd – that had definitely been confirmed by me - was abruptly cancelled after I was advised by Supriano that her producer, having just returned from vacation, and being very aware of an intense smear campaign against my publication “From The Wilderness,” directed that this show also be cancelled in order to avoid controversy or possibly risk the host losing her show.
What is the source for these undemocratic and heavy-handed acts?
First there was an utterly meritless attack by David Corn of “The Nation” who used nothing but innuendo to disparage my post 9-11 research. He criticized a single and accurate citation of a press story in my 9-11 timeline and said that my reporting was biased because I did not list several negative stories about the subject – a former U.S. Naval officer, Delmart Vreeland. What Corn dishonestly failed to mention was that I had hired a full-time correspondent in Toronto to cover the story, traveled there twice myself to obtain court records and conduct interviews and, in no less than three original stories, reported on more negative allegations about the subject than had been printed in the stories Corn accused me of neglecting. Not once did Corn address the undisputed FACTS of the case; namely that Vreeland had written an accurate warning a month before the attacks.
A second and more insidious attack has been launched by Norman Solomon of FAIR. In a secretive internal memo Solomon has implied that I am a right-wing racist, accused me of being sloppy, and again failed to discuss a single one of the documented facts I have reported on since September 11th.
Solomon’s arguments included the fact the one of the web sites I recommend is that of Matt Drudge. Dishonestly, Solomon did not mention that I do not recommend or endorse Drudge for his editorial position. The reason that I recommend the site is because, from the home page, Drudge maintains links to about 100 of the world’s largest press web sites, including that of The Nation. As one continually immersed in research I find it a convenient place to go and read stories from all over the world and just use the “Back” button to go to another site. I have been emailed that Drudge even maintains a link to Solomon’s site. I just looked but couldn’t find it – there are so many links on the page.
Solomon’s second aspersion on my integrity as a journalist is the fact that I quoted Oliver North in one of my stories. Anyone who knows me and my story is aware that there are few people in the world that I like less than Oliver North. But an effective writer often quotes his enemies when their words serve to make his point. Such is the essence of debate. Solomon apparently knows little on this subject.
Solomon concludes his internal character assassination by implying that I am a right-wing racist. He neglects to mention that after my televised confrontation with CIA Director John Deutch in 1996, I was endorsed by the Black American Political Action Committee (BAPAC) and the Los Angeles (Black) Baptist Ministerial Conference. He forgets to mention that I have spoken to the IWW International and for the All African People’s Revolutionary Party. Nor does he mention that I have shared a podium with former Black Panther Dhoruba bin-Wahad or been publicly addressed as “My white son,” by Pacifica Board member Dick Gregory. There is nothing anywhere in my history or any of my writings to support a charge of right-wing or racist. I made Chip Berlet retract libelous statements to that effect last year and I have the records to prove that also.
But the mindless and the unqualified leaders within Pacifica will take a slight, offhand comment in shameful co-dependency and thus disserve their greatest responsibility – to fearlessly serve the truth. Unless they are willing to shoulder that responsibility they have no place protecting public airwaves.
It is my research, and the fact that the facts cannot be disputed, that is really what this oppressive censorship is all about.
Neither Solomon nor Corn nor Martin Lee nor any of those who I am told are working feverishly to ban me from Pacifica’s airwaves will comment upon the documented facts of my research – except by innuendo. None of them will address my documentation of insider trading before 9-11. Not one of them will address the undisputed court evidence that Delmart Vreeland wrote a warning of the 9-11 attacks a month before they happened. None of them will address the fact that fighters were deliberately not scrambled after the simultaneous hijackings of four commercial airliners when it has been standard procedure for more than 25 years to do so. Not one of them will address the fact that Zbigniew Brzezinski wrote in 1997 that the next war would be where we are fighting today and that the American people would never support such a venture absent an attack on America of the magnitude of Pearl Harbor. None of them will dare come near me and my research in the healthy spirit of intellectual honesty that is required for a democracy to flourish because they cannot win that fight.
Instead, Pacifica in general, and KPFA in particular, is demonstrating repressive tactics worthy of the Gestapo while posing as a champion of free speech.
I salute and thank all of my friends and supporters within the Pacifica Network like Dick Gregory, Kellia Ramares, Bonny Faulkner, Tracy Larkins, Ian Johnson, Sue Supriano, Eben Rey, Roy of Hollywood and many others. These people know and understand what is happening here and they see the blatant unfairness of these tactics. I salute and am grateful for the continued support of Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney of Georgia, a true hero.
In a free society what matter are the facts. When I am not censored and when my critics emerge with honor to face me and discuss differences on the basis of fact, then Pacifica might be entitled to claim the mantle of “Protector of Free Speech.”
The weak-kneed management policies which foster such behavior remind me of a standing joke among therapists. KPFA managers and producers are like sheep, running for the protected, politically-correct cover of sacred icons, to wrap themselves in the warm and dysfunctional clothing of the co-dependent.
Therapists joke about a co-dependent wife who reports for her first day of treatment. The therapist asks, “How do you feel about coming here?”
“I don’t know,” says the wife. “I’ll have to ask my husband.”
So it is with the fearful at Pacifica. What your listeners want is a fair presentation of the evidence so that they can judge for themselves without having to ask Norman Solomon, David Corn, or Noam Chomsky what to think. I give Pacifica listeners that much credit and their response to my fund raising efforts on Pacifica’s behalf shows that this is the brain and soul food for which they hunger.
Michael C. Ruppert
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A MESSAGE FROM PROFESSOR PETER DALE SCOTT
I am distressed to hear that KPFA, a supposedly liberal and open-minded institution, is denying Mike Ruppert the right to be heard. Have any reasons been advanced for this censorship?
I have known Mike Ruppert quite well for at least two years. He is a zealous seeker after truth; and especially recently, has unearthed a number of important stories which he was the first to break. One of them, about Attorney-General Ashcroft's failure to recuse himself in a DOJ investigation of Exxon-Mobil in Central Asia, is extremely important. I have posted it on my own website at http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~pdscott/qfmobil.html.
Mike Ruppert goes after breaking stories. In so doing, he runs the risk that some of these stories will look different with the benefit of
hindsight. However I am not aware of anything he has said, written, or done recently, that would justify denying him access to the airwaves
of KPFA.
If KPFA is to persist in this policy, they should explain their
reasons for doing so immediately. I would request that they send their explanation both to him and to me.
Yours sincerely,
Peter Dale Scott
English Department, University of California, Berkeley CA 94720.
Address: 2740 Belrose Ave., Berkeley CA 94705.
Phone: 510 848-6812. Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
FAX: 510 848-5259 (up to 3 pages); 510 642-8738 (For Prof Scott) (4+pp)
Website: http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~pdscott
I invite you to look at my new webpage on the Al-Qaeda/bin Laden crisis: http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~pdscott/q.html (updated 3/30/02)
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